Latvian Legion

The Latvian Legion was a formation of the Waffen-SS that was active from January 1943 to 1945 during World War II, consisting primarily of ethnic Latvian soldiers. The legion consisted of the 15th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Latvian), and the 19th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (2nd Latvian), and it had a combined strength of 87,550 troops as of 1 July 1944, with another 23,000 men as Wehrmacht auxiliaries. The Legionnaires were motivated by their opposition to the Soviet Union, and they allied with Nazi Germany against the communist Soviets. The legion fought at the Siege of Leningrad, the East Pomeranian Offensive, and in the Courland Pocket, where it was destroyed in May 1945.